Mt. Gox was a central part of the global Bitcoin-trading world.
At its peak in 2013 the site was handling over 70% of Bitcoin
transactions, serving as the backbone for the cryptocurrency
industry.

The wildly successful Bitcoin exchange was based in Japan, with a
team of contractors working under enigmatic CEO Mark
Karpelès. As Pando reports, the site's owner only employed
contractors, and kept important parts of the site's encryption to
himself. Despite the secrecy, though, the company thrived.

It was a far cry from the origins of the site, which started life
as a website for people to exchange Magic The Gathering trading
cards. In its news form, Mt. Gox was handling billions of dollars
worth of Bitcoin transactions.

But everything came crashing down for Mt. Gox in February 2014
when the site suddenly halted all withdrawals. That alarmed
customers, who bombarded it with queries. No solid information
was forthcoming, with the site blaming a problem in the core code
behind Bitcoin for the loss of a vast amount of the digital
currency. At its peak value, the amount lost was over $730
million.

By March 2014, Mt. Gox had filed
for bankruptcy and Karpelès resigned from Bitcoin's
board. The majority of the missing Bitcoin was never found,
however. 200,000 bitcoin was found in one of Mt. Gox's old
accounts, but most customers still lost out. Karpelès has
refused to travel to the US to face charges, meaning that the
Japanese police investigation could be the last hope for Mt. Gox
customers.

Now, it looks like the police investigation is turning its focus
onto people involved with Mt. Gox, not vulnerabilities in Bitcoin
or hackers from outside the company. The Japanese newspaper
report cites sources close to the investigation who claim that
someone involved with Mt. Gox may have transferred Bitcoin around
the exchange, repeating the process and earning a profit margin.

If the Mt. Gox bitcoin was stolen by routing the money through
the online exchange, that could be related to "Willy" and
"Markus" — two of Mt. Gox's automated trading accounts which
conducted suspicious transfers.

Sources close to the police investigators claim that only 1% of
the Bitcoin ever left Mt. Gox as a result of a hack, with an
overwhelming amount staying inside the company.

Despite what seems to be a significant advancement in the police
investigation, there's still little hope that Mt. Gox's customers
will see their cryptocurrency again.